TATIANA RYUMINA (b 1950)Russian pianist

Tatiana Ryumina was a student of Yakov Flier at the Moscow Conservatory from which she graduated in 1973. She had won second prize at the Schumann Competition in Zwickau in 1969 (Dezső Ránki took first prize that year) but placed outside the top six in the 1974 Tchaikovsky Competition. Shortly after that she seems to have faded from view, some say due to a career ending accident.

My favorite piece by Schumann is his Kreisleriana. To my ear, this music represents the essence of the warring aspects of the composer and the essence of German literary romanticism. The below performance of this work recorded at the Tchaikovsky Competition in 1974 is stunning, exciting, dramatic, and ethereal. That a pianist capable of this performance is not a legend is befuddling to me. I can see the judges at the Tchaikovsky making their excuses for not voting for her. Too many wrong notes, I hear them saying to each other, tutting tuts all over the place. Excuse me. Anyone ever hear Sviatoslav Richter's 1959 Sofia recital? Wrong notes indeed.

The only other recording I could find is one of the Liszt Tarantella. Wow!

Schumann "Kreisleriana" Op 16

recorded live at the 1974 Tchaikovsky competition

Liszt Tarantella from Venezia e Napoli

early 1970s radio broadcast

For those of you who enjoy murder mysteries, here is my first with a strong musical polemic as background